Stories about travel are meant to be fun, inspirational and envy-inducing (evil, I know). But sometimes the most enduring memories of a trip involve near-disaster and mayhem. This is one such story.
On our recent trip to Mallorca, we flew Vueling Airlines from Amsterdam to Palma, with a short stopover in Barcelona (about one hour between flights).
After "deplaning" (who came up with that awful term? Slap that person for me, would ya?), we walked the entire length of the airport to the gate for our connecting flight. We were excited not to have to wait around for very long, and that we'd soon be in sunny Mallorca! (HA!)
Just as we joined the line to board, pdy suddenly went ashen as he (a professional photographer) realized that his camera bag had been left on the first plane. Dun-dun-dunnnn... not good.
I think every relationship should be tested by this kind of thing. In these moments you get to see whether your partner is a panicky, head-exploding stress case or whether he/she exhibits grace under pressure. [spoiler alert: happy to report that we both fit firmly into the latter category]
We instinctively bolted back to the original gate area and split up to see if we could locate an information desk. But like an apparition from the heavens, a Vueling rep appeared and took complete charge of the situation (We didn't get his name but I like to think of him as Chill Personified).
He calmly instructed us to go back to board the connecting flight and that he'd follow us there, all the while radioing his colleagues. He assured us that if the bag was found (and had not been stolen) we'd have it before the flight left the ground. True to his word, the bag was handed to us moments before boarding closed.
Soon we were happily on our way to (momentarily) sunny Mallorca, where 99% of the photos were shot with an iPhone. #irony
But not all of them...
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